Alternative Thursdays - Week 7 (June16, 2005)

Revolutions per Beats

[Very very late]

I have always held a firm belief that Ethiopia is a nation of extreme contrasts. When people ask me what it is like where I came from, that’s my usual response. If they want further explanations I go on to list the good and the not so good extremities we boast. What happened in Addis in the past week has just made the growing list.

It was only last week Addis was in uproar that left most parts of the city a desolate. It was last week the brutes unleashed their war machines on unarmed people. Last week most of us were angry. This week it looks as if every thing is back to normal, the public is back to its shiny happy status, but what lies beneath their polished skin is the true Whittington’s beetle in a box - an “unsettle calmness” as the western media calls it.

What’s left from last week is, deep sorrow in those who lost some one, bullet holes in the injured, armed drones that have become part of the landscape and lot of speculations on what happened at the AAU on June 12, 2005 and what lies ahead. In times like this when the state media gives you nothing but nausea, speculations and rumors are all we have. Everyone, including me, have their own take on the situation, only time can tell.

For most of us our speculations are also our wishes. A wish to experience things we have always been told they exist but never actually seen one; like freedom and democracy or a yeti.

now in form of music:

1. Goodiemob – free (intro)
2. The white stripes – I’m finding it harder to be a gentleman everyday
3. REM – shiny happy people
4. Radiohead – karma police
5. Guns n’ roses – knockin’ on heavens door
6. The arcade fire – rebellion (lies)
7. Interpol – a time to be small
8. Neil Young – human highway
9. The doors – riders on the storm
10. The smiths – still ill
11. Caribou (aka. Manitoba) – yeti